REVIEWS easy to get into. Frustration can set in when conversation with other game inhabitants is quickly reduced to a hail of abuse and eventual bloodshed when you do not know precisely what it is they want. It is easy enough, when a tribesmen decides to teach Torgan a lesson for his aggressive manner, to spend game-days recovering from the attack - but isn't that life? There is certainly a lot to do in Sapiens and it looks very pretty whilst doing it but it is quite repetitive and its interest factor may dwindle quite quickly.
ATARI ST
A HOWLING
SUCCESS?
WEREWOLVES OF LONDON
COMMODORE 64 Cassette: £9.99 Diskette: £12.99
SPECTRUM 48/128 Cassette: £8.99
Viz Designs
V
iz Designs is not a development team (which it may sound like), but another offshoot in the growing list of Ariolasoft labels. This is their first game and it is out first for the Amstrad, with other 8-bit versions to follow shortly.
The other 8-bit versions are in the pipeline, and should be available before Christmas. The Commodore version should be no problem, but the Spectrum will depend a lot on how the graphics are implemented.
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Diskette: £19.99 The music in Sapiens is very Depeche Mode (an appropriately neanderthal band) and surprisingly adds quite a bit to the games atmosphere. All the graphical scenes are impressive, although the character animation is somewhat halting. Perhaps a little more control over Torgan's actions would have been nice, walk left or right, stoop down and hit (with his axe) or throw a spear do not seem quite enough considering the task ahead of him.
OVERALL 64% PC Diskette: £24.99 It plays the same as the Atari version except that the keyboard is used rather more than the mouse. The colours are pastelly and unreal (PC 1640 SD although if you have the colour graphics board, this may not be quite the case) and the sound is awful, more a fault of the machine than the game. Having said all that Sapiens is still very playable on the PC compatibles.
OVERALL 62% AMSTRAD CPC £14.99 Available mid-January
« Sapiens
is interesting and certainly quite original in both plot and implementation."
For reasons unknown to you (and why not?) a wicked family of Sloane Rangers have placed a curse on you (the whimsy becomes more sublime) - a curse that causes you to transform into a werewolf every full moon! Seeking revenge for this dastardly deed, you intend to search London for the family members and 'dispose' of them, one by one. It may sound like a rather gruesome scenario, but in fact Werewolves Of London is a nicely constructed, humorous and pleasant release from Viz Designs. To realise your inhuman passion, you can run across rooftops, prowl through parks, stroll along streets, scamper down sewers and even use the Underground (a description of abilities that could describe almost any Londoner in fact). Should you chance upon a Sloane, a cross flashes in the status display, the moment at which you should quickly run up and kill him or her before they scamper off. The city constabulary disapproves of your actions however, and unlike those silly policemen in the movies with their prejudices about common superstition, this lot is just waiting to fire silver bullets at anything remotely hairy. Being shot by a silver bullet, falling off rooftops or
electrocuting yourself on the Underground rails causes a loss of blood, and losing all of it ends your hunt. Pouncing on Londoners restores blood, although you have to catch your meal first. As soon as daylight breaks, you naturally turn back into a respectable, innocent human. This provides an ideal opportunity to explore the city and collect such useful objects as crowbars (to open the manholes leading to the sewers) and flashlights (useful for dark passages and the tunnels of the Underground). Bandages also come in handy for stemming the flow of blood. The police won't tolerate all this mayhem, and getting nicked means a night in jug with any illegal possessions being put back where they came from. Only when all eight of the Sloane Ranger family are killed, can the werewolf curse be lifted, and London made safe again - until the next game.
AMSTRAD Cassette: £9.99 Diskette: £14.99 Oddly, there's something very pleasing about running around, eating passers-by and dodging the bobbies. The game uses the basic elements of an arcade adventure, coupled with over a 100 screens, and combines them to good effect. The action can slow down quite a bit when there's a lot of people on screen, but eating them soon solves that problem! The graphics are relatively simple considering what the Amstrad is capable of, but they work well; the way the tycanthrope lopes along is especially convincing.
OVERALL 75%
"Werewolves Of London is a nicely constructed, humorous and pleasant release from Viz Designs."
TGM
TX
DATE: 12-87 75/148